


I'll Stand By You

by SnowyMountainside



Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Mention of Adam - Freeform, Mention of Canon Death, and that's about all that's let of him now eyyo, don't worry Adam is about as present as a bug imprint on a windshield, mention of amputee's relationship to prosthetic, vol7 compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:35:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26313532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowyMountainside/pseuds/SnowyMountainside
Summary: One night after narrowly escaping a giant whale Grimm, Yang Xiao Long has finally had enough and she can't take anymore. The walls close in, the hum of the engines turn into a roar, and worst of all there's no ground beneath her feet.Sounds like the perfect time for her partner to come check on her in the middle of the night.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long
Comments: 5
Kudos: 114





	I'll Stand By You

**Author's Note:**

> I actually wrote this as a song-prompt fic challenge back on May 14th of 2020 as a writing exercise, and then let it languish in my WIP box ever since. I've finally decided I don't want my 6/9 fic to be the only thing on my profile, so I tightened up the words as best I could before letting it free into the wilds.
> 
> Song: I'll Stand By You by The Pretenders  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD7zvRgr58U (TW for mild suggestion of drug use/overdose)  
> https://open.spotify.com/track/3Nf8oGn1okobzjDcFCvT6n?si=iVU5KiZzTyGRg882InqCzg

“Yang?” 

Blake’s voice was soft, but felt like a clap of thunder and carried through the bedroom like a stampede. Yang found her already quickened heart rate had skyrocketed at the sound, and all she could do was whimper pathetically. As soon as the sound escaped her lips, she began to pray that _somehow_ Blake hadn’t heard. Despite having _two_ sets of ears.

She swore under her breath when she heard the tumblers in the doorknob move; she guessed that there’s no such luck for a one-armed, panicking, sad sack on an airship thousands of miles above the ground with nowhere to hide. She’d torn her prosthetic off an hour ago, thrown it into her closet. The sensations that all the chips and wires fed her brain were too much; the (lack of) sensation when she’d tried to touch her own face wasn’t enough. Cold sweat beaded on every inch of skin, and she’d been kneeling, paralyzed, next to her bed so long she was sure you could make a life-sized, fully detailed render of the stupid Atlesian military standard issue carpet from the indent. Now was just such a **great** time for a late night visitor.

Blake didn’t shout her name, the way she expected her to, when she saw her. Didn’t yelp in surprise or alarm, didn’t squeak in timid concern. No, instead she ran to her side immediately, then dropped down with such speed and accuracy that Yang wanted to pretend this was a battle simulation. Blake had found the target, the envoy would be there in five minutes, mission secured, and now we break for lunch. Again though, there’s no such luck.  
  
“Blake…” Yang began, voice raspy and hissed through her teeth, while she clenched the blanket on her bed tighter in her fist.

“Don’t.”

It was such a soft command that Yang almost missed that it was an order at all. She certainly didn’t notice in time to stop herself from obeying, or in time to stop Blake from cradling her head against the Faunus’ shoulder. Soft white filled her shocked vision until she forced her eyes to close as tight as possible, like she could shut out the reality of the situation if she cut off enough sensory input. Yang couldn’t stop the shake in her hand as she let go of the bed and hesitantly held onto Blake’s side, trying to convince her muscles to flex, to move, to push her back so that Yang could come up with some kind of fable about what was happening.

“Don’t.” Blake pushed again, just as soft as before, but with so much additional power it made Yang see stars. “You don’t have to.”  
  
“Don’t have to… what…” came Yang’s laborious reply, panted out with thin breath.

“This. Any! of this!” There’s a small sniff, but Yang couldn’t have told you who it belonged to. “Alone, quietly, contained. Whatever else is going on…”

Yang finally did manage to put a little distance between them then, suddenly sickened and overwhelmed by the cloying persistence of _too much, not enough, too much_. Blake wasn’t deterred, arms still gently draped around her clammy back, but she doesn’t force Yang to stay close, either. The blonde’s jaw ground into itself with so much tension some idle part of her mind feared her teeth would break.

“You don’t even _know_ …” A flash of crimson burned in the night.

“Don’t I?” Blake grabbed Yang’s chin and, for the first time that Yang could remember, forced her to meet her eyes. Forced her to see molten gold that seemed to roil in the night. “Look at me, Yang.”

Eyes of lilac shakily looked back and forth between them, hunted for any clues, before she finally absorbed the person in front of her. Blake didn’t look pitying, sympathetic… she looked **_pissed_ ** , in a way that Yang could only remember seeing once. On a mountainside, the roar of a waterfall to their backs, and blazing red streaked out before them. The same vision that had haunted Yang an hour ago, that had caused bile to dance behind her tongue. Maybe…   
  
“If you’re mad, get fucking mad, Yang. The stars above know I am so _utterly_ livid that he did this to me, to us. How dare, how _dare_ he!” Blake sobbed, fangs bared at the air between them. “ _No one_ has the right to change a life like he did“— Blake brought a shaky palm up to stare at it, like something had dripped down the wrist— “to force another to end a life.” Her eyes turned back up, focus sharp, to hold Yang’s gaze. “But we had _every_ right to do what we did. So… get mad. Just, don’t shut me out.” Yang didn’t even have to look to know that Blake’s ears were folded back. “Please?”

Yang tried to turn her head away, felt far too exposed and read to the quick, but Blake didn’t yield her grasp. Neither woman was sure if the sound that escaped Yang was a sigh or a cry, but it was allowed respect, allowed to die in the air without comment. Blake was painfully patient as she allowed Yang the time to summon her words, and that almost made it worse. In a sign of surrender, Yang turned her cheek into Blake’s palm, finally breaking from her grip only to replace it with _more_ contact.

“It is so heavy to hold it all up by myself...” she holds up a finger to cue Blake to wait, “and it feels entirely irresponsible to carve out space for _all_ of the things on my mind. I feel like I’m still weeks behind everyone else - even you! ‘But next time’ - I remember, Blake. I remember. You already, you’ve already… figured out how to move on, or at least, how you want to. I…” Yang’s teeth grind and Blake’s ears flick as the flinch that’s not on her face, “I’m not there yet.”

“But, I’m here,” Blake leaned forward and nudged their foreheads together, “I’m right here. With you.” 

Yang let out a sigh of relief that came out almost as a hiss of pain, and it was credit to how Blake understood her that the Faunus didn’t misunderstand her. Blake brought both hands up to cradle Yang’s face and took a few breaths while holding eye contact, a pattern that forced Yang to take air into her lungs deeper and slower. Once Yang relaxed enough to close her eyes _without_ her brows crushed into themselves, Blake slowly stood and slid one step after the other in order to reach into the closet for the discarded arm. Yang had whimpered a little at the chill of Blake’s absence, but delicate fingertips remained in contact with her jaw and pressed a little firmer in lieu of contact surface. Once her goal was tucked under her arm, Blake knelt down in front of Yang as close as she could; knee to knee, and forehead to forehead once more.

“You never have to be alone, Yang, not if you don’t _want_ to.” Blake placed the forearm portion of Yang’s arm in her hand, then closed her fingertips around the metal in a motion which also laced their fingers together. “I’m more than willing to take time and space next to you. To listen to you.” A heavy breath is pulled into a shaken, but resolute form. “I’m ready. I’m sorry, that I wasn’t before, but… I’m ready now.”

“B-Blake…” 

That was it, that’s all it took. Fat tears welled and then fell down Yang’s face as she gripped Blake’s hand, her stump rising to rest on a well-toned shoulder for comfort and stability. Blake didn’t try to say anything, didn’t ask for Yang to, either; she just held her close and gave her support through the tears. After what felt like eons, Yang took in a final, steady breath with closed eyes and hooked her prosthetic - her _arm_ \- back into it’s plate. She returned the two handed face hold, a thumb dragged lightly over Blake’s cheekbones.   
  
“Yang?”   
“Yeah?”   
“I’d like to kiss you. Is that, can I-”   
" _Please._ ”

Yang doesn’t charge into the new situation like she usually would. She let Blake come to her, and she let them rest against each other rather than push against her. It’s the most heartaching, gutwrenching, magnificent thing she’d ever experienced. Better than the first time she realized that Ember Celica could let her fly, better than getting top marks in her exit exams at Signal, better than the first time she got Weiss to actually laugh at one of those stupid, _stupid_ puns…

But not better than the first time she heard Blake laugh, not better than the first time Blake made a joke back, and Yang can’t help but wonder what the next better thing will be. 

But, at least for today, she’s finally confident that someone will stand next to her when it happens. She knows, now, that it will be Blake Belladonna.

**Author's Note:**

> If you felt like there was an homage in there you couldn't quite place, you'd be right! "I'm ready. I'm sorry, that I wasn't ready before" was inspired by this comic of Frankielucky's on tumblr!  
> https://frankielucky.tumblr.com/post/619812628476444672/start-prev-end-did-i-draw-a-17-part-comic-just


End file.
